One Thing – Work from Your Strengths by Joshua Gordon

October 19, 2011 in Guest Post, One Thing, Video Blog with 11 Comments

Here’s today’s episode of the One Thing Series. Where I have asked successful entrepreneurs and those doggedly pursuing their goal of self employment one question: “What is the one piece of advice you would give someone if they told you they were starting a business and you could only tell them one thing to help them out?” Today’s guest vlog is brought to you by Joshua Gordon, founder of The Nonconformist Family. Here is Joshua’s One Thing:

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“Work from an area of your strengths!” ~Joshua Gordon

I couldn’t agree with him more!

Joshua and his wife, Sarah, live with their two precious little girls in Canada. They started The Nonconformist Family because they were tired of being “normal”. I am honored to call Joshua my friend.

  • Archie

    Yes, I have heard a LOT of great things about Josh. However, I don’t think I’ve connected with him yet! Thanks for the reminder, Ivan. And by the way, another great post today. Keep’em coming bro.

    • http://www.abetterwayofbusiness.com/ Ivan Bickett

      Archie, you NEED to connect with Josh. He can help make your dreams come true!

  • http://www.thenonconformistfamily.com Joshua Gordon

    You guys are awesome, the both of ya!

    Josh

  • Anonymous

    Lol. Oh Josh. You make me laugh. I am impressed with your focus-ability. I 100% agree with you about finding your strengths and working in those! So… for those who don’t know their strengths, Ivan and Josh, how do you recommend someone find out what they are?

    • http://www.thenonconformistfamily.com Joshua Gordon

      I recommend something I’ve called The 50 Things test. I didn’t invent it, but I don’t know who did, so I’ll take the credit! Actually, now that I think of it, I went through this exercise as part of Free Agent Academy…

      Step #1: Write down 50 moments in your life where you loved what you were doing, and were GREAT at it. This is a both/and, not an either or. To make the list, the moment has to be both.

      Step #2: Look for similarities/overlap/common threads throughout your 50 things. Then choose 10-15 of the 50 that best represent the entire group, and write 3 paragraphs about each of ‘em. In those paragraphs, concentrate on explaining a) what exactly you did, b) what you worked with, and c) what precisely gave you so much satisfaction.

      Step #3: From those 10-15 stories, make 3 lists: 1) Actions I took 2) Things I worked with 3) What gives me satisfaction. Comb through your 10-15 stories to populate each of the lists.

      Step #4: Condense the three lists into three sentences: I am amazing at _____________. I work incredibly well with ______________. I feel super fulfilled whenever I do ________________.

      Make sense, Alana?

      • Anonymous

        NICE!! This is awesome. Thanks for breaking it down Josh. I will do it Saturday and see what I come up with.

        • Anonymous

          I have to confess. I did not end up doing this today. I DO plan to do it. I am very intrigued to see what I will come up with. Josh and I are going to set up our schedule for the next couple weeks so we can be intentional with our lives. This exercise will work itself into that.

          • http://www.abetterwayofbusiness.com/ Ivan Bickett

            I love that yall are scheduling your time and being intentional. That will get you where you want to go in life!

            ~Ivan

      • http://www.abetterwayofbusiness.com/ Ivan Bickett

        Love the detail you put in here. Another reason you’re so awesome!

    • http://www.abetterwayofbusiness.com/ Ivan Bickett

      See Josh’s answer below!

      I’d like to add, you don’t know what you’re strengths are until you have a lot of experiences and you actually pay attention to yourself through them. You can go back through your life and extract feelings and reactions and memories. You can also start paying attention to what you’re doing today and see if it comes natural to you and you excel at it with little to no effort or if it’s a chore and drudgery.

      The key is being aware of what’s going on inside you when you’re doing these things.

      And I really want to emphasize the group approach Josh mentioned. I would NEVER have discovered my strengths without someone else being able to look at me and say, “Hey! You do xyz really well!”

      The last thing I’ll throw in is buy a copy of Strength Finder’s 2.0 and take the test. You might be surprised by the results.

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